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ULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 




)1. 8 SEPTEMBER, 1917 No. 2 



THE WAR 

As Viewed at the University 

Selections from Addresses and Papers 

by Members of the Teaching Staff 

during the Summer of 1917 



"For us there is but one choice. We have made it. 
Woe to the man that seeks to stand in our way in this 
day of high resolution, when every principle that we 
hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the 
salvation of the nations." - President Wilson. 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 

Salt Lake City, Utah 



(War Series No. 1) 



Introdudlion 

By Dr. John A. Widtsoe, President of the University. 

In a free land the schools and colleges are the clear eyes, 
the keen ears, the prophetic voices, of the people. In them 
are trained the arms and brains of the people. In the hour 
of great need, Universities must not be silent. In these 
trying days, the men and women of the University of Utah 
have fearlessly spoken and helpfully acted. Several of their 
addresses are herein printed, and others may appear in a 
future bulletin. 

The clearest fact connected with our entrance into the 
world war is that we used our utmost endeavors to keep 
out of war. We entered the conflict when it became certain 
that the existence of our own country was endangered. As 
the great war w,ent on, our nation perceived that a foe to the 
growth of human liberty had arisen — a foe which for many 
years had prepared for the overthrow of representative 
governments — a foe which utterly repud"ates the doctrine 
that every person is entitled to "life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness" — a foe which has deceived and ensnared 
a sound people, .essentially liberty-loving, into fighting its 
battles — a foe which had laid its plans to attack our own in- 
stitutions for the promotion of human happiness, built at the 
cost of the blood of our fathers. 

We accept the responsibility that destiny has placed upon 
us. This land, in which the largest human liberty has been 
won and developed, must be preserved, that its citizens may 
become even freer, and that, by our example, all nations may 
gather the courage to free themselves from' tyranny and op- 
pression. 

There is no hate in our fighting .except the hate of in- 
justice and slavery. There is no lust for conquest in our 
v/arfare, but only a living hope that we may help in bring- 
ing to all people equal rights, equal opportunities, and hap- 
pier lives. We aim, moreover, to make impossible the repe- 
tition of this wanton, cruel, and barbarous warfare — the 
blackest blot on the history of civilization. 



By Tnin«f»T 
\m 8 1919 



7 



n^. 



Why Are We at War? 

By Milton Bennion, Dean of the School of Education. 

From one point of view it is a difficult task to talk on 
international peace, arbitration^, and conciliation when almost 
all the world is at war. On the other hand there is perhaps 
no time when the value of peace and the things upon which 
it depends can be so much appreciated as in the midst of or 
immediately following- a great, destructive war. It is easy 
now to see of what great benefit to humanity arbitration and 
conciliation might have been had all the political leaders of 
the world only the sense of justice and humanity to employ 
these means of settlement instead of resorting to military 
force. 

America, in its isolation from the military establishments 
of Europe, has cultivated the aims of an industrial democ- 
racy, and with these aims has nursed a feeling of security 
even while the old world was torn with strife. We have 
scarcely yet realized that we are actually at war and that in 
the next few months may be required to make enormous 
sacrifices in human life and in the material goods that sup- 
port life. The time for argument as to whether we should or 
should not participate in the war is past. The present is a 
time for carefully planned but nevertheless most strenuous 
action. There is and always must be a limit to individual- 
ism. In a democracy every citizen may freely advocate his 
opinion while any matter is pending for decision ; but when 
a decision has been made by the will of the majority, and 
when the life of the nation is at stake, as it must be in war- 
fare, the citizen is in duty bound to do his part to protect 
that common life. To prolong the discussion is to give aid 
and comfort to the enemy and weakens the defensive powers 
of the nation. There is, fortunately, little excuse for any 
peace-loving American citizen to continue his opposition to 
our participation in the war. 



When, at the birth of the American nation, a group of 
liberty- loving patriots adopted the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, they said : *'But when a long train of abuses and 
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a 
•design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their 
right, it is their duty, to throw of¥ .such Government, and to 
provide new guards for their future security." 

These words need only be paraphrased in terms of the 
present international situation to correctly account for our 
being in this war. We have been more patient and long- 
sufifering in preserving our neutrality than were the Revolu- 
tionary fathers in enduring their wrongs. This has come 
about in part because many of the causes that led us into 
this war at first seemed too remote or too abstract to com- 
mand the support of the great mass of American people in 
war measures. Let us examine some of these causes : 

In the summer of 1914 Austria sent an ultimatum to 
Servia, requiring immediate compliance with Austria's de- 
mand if war would be averted. The smaller and weaker 
nation was given no opportunity to settle the questions at 
issue in an international court of arbitration and she was 
powerless to defend herself against one of the great military 
powers. Russia could not well permit Austria to engage in 
an aggressive war against any of the Balkan states. She, 
therefore, began mobilizing her army. Germany, as an ally 
of Austria, thereupon issued an ultimatum to Russia de- 
manding immediate demobilization ; but, instead of attacking 
Russia she made a very sudden attack upon France — Rus- 
sia's ally. As she wished to strike France at the most vul- 
nerable point on her frontier she chose the route through 
Belgium, contrary to international law and her treaty obliga- 
tions. Great Britain had guaranteed the independence of 
Belgium and was also vitally concerned in her own interest 
in maintaining the independence and integrity of this small 
state. 

The invasion of Belgium was such a clear case of inter- 
national crime that the sympathies of many neutrals, includ- 
ing our own country, were at once aroused. Many Ameri- 
cans would have gone to war at once in defense of Belgium. 
Had v/e been situated as England was we doubtless should 



have done so. The American consciousness of the Monroe 
doctrine and the general aversion to mixing in European 
affairs — the counter-part of the Monroe doctrine — were 
doubtless the chief factors in restraining us from war. The 
large number of American citizens of German birth or Ger- 
man descent and the respect of many Americans for the 
achievements of German civilization were further restraining 
factors. From this time, nevertheless, the sympathies ,of 
the great mass of Americans were with the Allies, and that 
sympathy was directly extended to the Belgians in the form 
of food and other supplies. 

With the failure of the Germans to bring their military 
campaign to a .speedy and successful conclusion they began 
to devise ways of overcoming Great Britain's command of 
the sea. This they were not able to do by the ordinary 
methods of warfare. International law and the rights of 
neutrals had not been allowed to stand in the way of success 
on land ; why presume that they should do so on the sea ? 
At first, however, the protests of the American government 
were heeded, and restraints were placed upon .submarine 
warfare. It is now manifest that these restraints were the 
result of prudence rather than of principle. As soon as the 
German government concluded that unrestricted submarine 
warfare was necessary to success, it cast aside all law and 
former diplomatic assurance and launched its savage attacks 
upon enemy non-combatants and neutrals. This was the 
culmination of the series of causes that led to a state of war 
between Germany and our own country. 

Had the crimes committed against the small states of 
Europe been directed asrainst any American state, we should 
have been at war as promptly as was Great Britain following 
the invasion of Belgium. We cannot, therefore, do other- 
wise than approve the course taken by Great Britain and lend 
to her and to her allies our moral support. The extension 
of German defiance of international law and treaty obliga- 
tions to our own interests gave an occasion for war that the 
most conservat've Am.erican could not well resist. 

We should not mistake the cause for breaking off diplo- 
matic relations for the sole or even the chief cause of the 
war. Our chief cause for war is that we may have a lasting 



6 

peace. Peace depends upon respect for law, regard for jus- 
tice, and fidelity to treaties and other international obliga- 
tions. The course pursued by the central powers of Europe, 
if allowed to succeed, means the substitution of military 
power for social morality. 

If a promise is not to be kept except when convenient it 
has no value whatsoever; this is to deny that veracity in 
public affairs is a virtue. If international law can be violated 
and the violators escape punishment, these laws become void, 
and civilization is, in this respect, set back several centuries. 

The might of one group that sets up might as right must 
be overcome by the co-operative action of many who are 
willing to combine their strength in the interests of truth, 
law, justice, freedom, and all the higher and better things of 
civilization. We are in the war because we believe in these 
things and because we are determined that they shall not 
perish from the earth. 



The Pillars of Liberty 

By J. H. Paul, Professor of Natural Science. 

What, then, are the things which America defends with 
her might, and seeks to give to all mankind? — the things 
also which Germany has abolished vdierever her power ex- 
tends, and which she now attempts to overthrow and utter- 
ly destroy? 

Unlike the Germans, our soldiers know what they are 
fighting for ; and here are fourteen of the liberties for which 
they stand : 

I. THE CHARTER OF FREE GOVERNMENT. 

The fundamental . difference between American and 
German ideals and methods of government is shown in the 
respective national constitutions. Ours begins, "We, the 
people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide 
for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity, do hereby ordain and estab- 
lish this Constitution." The German national charter opens 



with the words, ''I, William, king of Prussia, emperor of 
Germ.any," etc., "do hereby grant unto my subjects" the 
following privileges. 

That is, in America the people delegate to their ser- 
vants, the elected officers of government, certain powers 
of action for the general good ; and any powers not so dele- 
gated are reserved to the States or are retained by the peo- 
ple. In Germany the rulers are the source of power, and 
they bestow certain privileges upon the people. 

The spirit, the voice, of America, as far back as 1776, 
was : "We, the people". A century later, when Germany 
found her voice, she could only say : 'T, William". On 
the one hand, "all men are created equal," with "inalien- 
able rights," "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" ; on 
the other, the kaiser, Idngs, princes, generals, "granting 
privileges," which are subject to revocation. What these 
American "rights", these German "privileges", are, we now 
shall see. 

II. TRIAL BY JURY. 

The precious right of being judged by one's peers and 
neighbors is a feature of the jurisprudence of every English- 
speaking country. It is totally unknown in Germany and 
Austria, though something akin to it is believed to have 
been practiced in ancient times among the free Germanic 
tribes. Today, in all Central Europe, the w^ord of the mag- 
istrate is the sole means of court decision, and is final. In 
those countries, many people have been deprived of life, 
liberty or property at the opinion, the prejudice, or even 
the whim of an official not responsible to the citizens. Not 
that German officials are often corrupt, but that the accident 
of a good judge is ofifset by the accident of a poor or pre- 
judiced one ; and this is the fact that has no palliation or 
remedy under the autocratic methods of Central Europe. 

III. HABEAS CORPUS. 

It is a curious and instructive fact that the invaluable 
American and English right known as habeas corpus, estab- 
lished in Britain in the year 1213, after long and bloody war- 
fare of the barons against tyrant kings, did not find its way 



8 

into the German Constitution till 1871. In English practice, 
for six centuries before its appearance in the German char- 
ter, it meant that any person seized by the authorities of the 
law could have the cause of his arrest or imprisonment im- 
mediately inquired into before a competent court in public 
session. In Germany, since 1871, though it resembles the 
ancient English right, the provision is of no value to any one 
accused of disloyalty, treason, or kindred offenses ; for it 
merely insures the government against making mistakes as 
to the persons whom it prosecutes ; though, of course, the 
writ may protect the prisoner against the malice of petty 
officials in cases that do not involve loyalty to the govern- 
ment. 

IV. ARRESTS. 

In America and England, no arrests can be made, ex- 
cept for crime committed at the time, neither can any one's 
premises be searched, without a warrant issued by the court. 
In Central Europe the people are never secure, even in their 
own homes, against searches, seizures, imprisonment, or ban- 
ishment, at the bare suspicion of officers and magistrates. In 
all English-speaking lands, "a man's house is his castle;" 
and no one, whether president, king, premier, or other of- 
ficial, may enter the house against the owner's will, except 
under the forms and legal processes prescribed by the stat- 
utes. 

v. A SPEEDY TRIAL. 

Our Constitution guarantees and secures to persons ac- 
cused of crime, a speedy trial. In Central Europe persons 
accused of political offenses, or suspected of disloyalty, have 
sometimes languished for years in prison without trial, and 
often without knowing for what offense they were incarcer- 
ated. 

VI. COURT PROCEDURE. 

Trials are so conducted in America as to give to the 
person accused the benefit of the doubt when testimony is 
conflicting, and the rules of evidence are so contrived as to 
shield him altogether from certain classes of testimony, such 
as rumor, opinion, and facts that do not bear directly on the 



case. In Central Europe any one may be a witness, and may 
testify in any way and to anything he chooses ; and wit- 
nesses may freely slander the person at the bar of justice. 

VII. FREE SPEECH. 

Here and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, 
there is freedom of speech and of the press ; and, in the event 
of prosecution, the truth of any assertion is almost a com- 
plete defense. In Central Europe there is no freedom of 
speech, even in the parliaments ; and an adverse opinion 
concerning the government or rulers, when too freely ex- 
pressed, has cost many a person there his liberty, property, or 
life. Freedom of the press in Central Europe is strictly 
limited by the governments ; and at the present time consists 
in publishing what the authorities direct. Thus the German 
papers have recently printed, as news from America, that 
the Liberty Loan was a gigantic failure ; that America was 
unable to raise an army ; and that the only man who enlisted 
from Monterey, Cal., had his picture published as a sort of 
curiosity in the San Francisco Examiner ; that the attempt 
to enlist men for the aviation service having failed in Amer- 
ica, troops of girls were now being trained for that purpose ; 
and so on. 

VIII. TREASON. 

How to avoid giving offense to the powers that be, has 
been for ages the chief terror of the people of Germany and 
Austria, not to mention Turkey and Bulgaria. In America 
treason consists only of overt acts in levying war against 
the Republic; and the Supreme Court has held that a con- 
spiracy to levy war against this country is not treason un- 
less war is actually levied. In Germany no one can say 
what treason is or is not. The government there is the sole 
judge of treason and disloyalty, which may consist of any 
deed, word, look, gesture, that the rulers may choose to con- 
strue as unfriendly to themselves or to the system they rep- 
resent. 

In time of peace it is very difficult to commit the crime 
of treason in America. Slander or denunciation of the gov- 
ernment or its agents is not treason, if spoken in times of 



10 

Deace. But when war is actually being levied against the 
Republic, any speech or act that amounts to adhering to the 
enemies of the country, or that gives them aid and comfort, 
is treasonable. 

That is, speech is free, but each person is responsible 
for his utterances. One is held for v/hat he says, just as for 
what he does. Whoever advises crime is himself guilty of 
that crime if others commit it at his suggestion. Those who 
speak against the draft law, for example, or urge revolt 
against any war measure of the government, are alike re- 
sponsible with those who resist or revolt. Those who lead 
others to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the country 
are themselves, as well as their dupes, guilty of treason. 
Persons who address assemblies and urge resistance to the 
war are guilty of treason if any persons are led by such ad- 
dresses to commit overt acts of resistance. Those who make 
threats against the Republic at war are leading to destruction 
both themselves and whoever may execute such threats ; 
for the penalty for treason is death. 

IX. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. 

No title of nobility can be granted in America, and all 
citizens are equal before the law, while aliens are at no spe- 
cial disadvantage under our system. German and Austrian 
titles, numerous and complicated, create inequalities and spe- 
cial privileges of great meaning and power ; while, by means 
of various legal fictions, the divine right of rulers — "the 
right divine of kings to govern wrong," as an English poet 
expresses it — is openly flaunted by the rulers themselves. 
Our people reject, instinctively, all such claims to birth from 
blue or other superior blood ; because, in the language of one 
of our poets, 

"They know, when veins are bled. 
That the blue blood is the putrid blood. 
For the people's blood is red." 

X. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

We enjoy freedom of religious belief and worship. In 
Central Europe a magistrate may banish or imprison, with- 



11 

out real judicial hearing, the expounders of any faiths not 
officially licensed by the state. A German has written me 
that he was threatened with exile for saying that heaven 
would punish Germany if freedom to preach were not 
granted. When meetings of unlicensed churches are per- 
mitted, it is still unlawful to preach, pray, or sing, at these 
meetings. 

XI. THE RIGHT TO VOTE. 

America has practically universal manhood suffrage 
and a great and rapidly increasing amount of womanhood 
suffrage. The German manhood suffrage is limited, and 
is cunningly frustrated by a system that allows one vote of 
an ancient landholder to outweigh the vote of a whole town 
of workingmen. Even so, the German voters do not choose 
many of the officials. 

XII. CIVIL SUPREMACY. 

Here the military is subordinate to the civil power. 
There the German officer is so much superior to the civilian 
that the officer is in honor bound to strike down with his 
sword any civilian who by word, look, or deed seems to the 
officer to offer an affront to the military uniform. Just be- 
fore the war a German officer thus struck down a crippled 
cobbler of Alsace. Such acts now and then arouse the Ger- 
man people, but in America they would lead at once to open 
rebellion and wholesale bloodshed. Moreover, the policies 
of the German government are framed by the general mili- 
tary staff. Not even the Chancellor nor the Reichstag has 
any voice in them ; and the Kaiser himself may be unable 
to vary the decision of these dictators as to what must be 
done, whether that be the sinking of a Lusitania or the mas- 
sacre of a city. 

XIII. A SUPREME COURT. 

Here a Supreme Court passes on all controversies that 
involve the constitutional rights of the people or that arise 
from disputes between States. Such a supreme court for 
the world as a whole has been the constant aim of our coun- 
try at peace conferences. The one nation that has always 



12 

held out against a supreme world-court, in which nations 
would be compelled to adjust their differences without war, 
is Germany. At the last Hague conference, Germany and 
her satellite nations prevented the adoption of the plans of 
the American representatives for universal, compulsory arbi- 
tration. The only supreme tribunal known in Germany is 
the will of the kaiser. 

XIV. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 

In America and England a congress or parliament 
elected by the untrammeled vote of the citizens decides upon 
all national issues, and has the sole right of declaring war. 
There the kaiser decides, and he alone (or, as the German 
papers claim, the crown prince) brought on the world-war. 
The reichstag was not even convened or consulted, though 
it is elected by a privileged few and might therefore have 
been trusted. But this German- parliament has no real power 
and does only what any debating society can do — that is, it 
presents arguments. The so-called chancellor, unlike the 
premier of Britain, is not responsible to the people as a 
whole nor even to any party ; he simply does the emperor's 
bidding. 

This list of political differences between America and 
Germany is far from complete ; but why go on ? It is not 
difficult to find fault even with our own free and just gov- 
ernment, yet to improve it is a slow and difficult process of 
legislation and experience. Today we must choose either 
Germany and its despotism or America and its freedom. 

Already the light of Europe, whose civilization and cul- 
ture have been the inspiration and guide of mankind for cen- 
turies, is in danger of being extinguished by the deluge of 
blood and destruction let loose upon the nations by the Ger- 
man onslaught. The triumph of Germany would mean the 
downfall of the moral and political ideals upon which this 
republic is based ; and human freedom, in the American 
sense, would have to battle anew for its existence. 

May heaven forgive, for their children may not, those 
who speak lightly of the liberties for which the flower of 
our youth now offer their lives on the fields of battle. For 
all who have a part in planning, or a hand in executing, any 



13 

deed that tends to obstruct, weaken, or delay the action of 
America in this day of high resohition and peril, shall re- 
ceive the opprobrium of the verdict of history, and shall be 
held to answer for their enormous crime at the bar of eter- 
nal justice. 



What Is at Stake? 

By George Emory Fellows, Professor of History and Po- 
litical Science. 

Would that I had the ability and opportunity to make 
clear to every inhabitant of all America how fundamental 
are the principles involved in this v/ar in which we are en- 
gaged. Have we, each one, the right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness? or are we to obey the arrogant 
commands of an irresponsible and dominating autocratic and 
militaristic powder, now and forever? 

The issue is as clear cut as this : Our citizens, men, 
women and children, going peacefully about their business 
and pleasure, are torpedoed into ocean graves, without 
warning ; then, for these outrages, belated and false explan- 
ations are made, or none at all. For nearly three years this 
went on, then came the official announcement of the German 
government that all the world which might cross an imag- 
inary and arbitrary line on the high seas would be ruth- 
lessly sent to the bottom, and we found ourselves in war 
whether we declared it or not. 

If ever in the history of the world there was a righteous 
war, this is one on the part of the United States and those 
whose interests are the same, that is, those who fight because 
they are attacked, or to enforce respect for treaties, or repel 
invasion. 

As time goes on, we know more positively where to lo- 
cate the responsibility for this world turmoil. In the early 
days of the war there were many varying opinions because 
of lack of information. False documents were issued and 
much effort of the guilty party employed in trying to fix 
the blame on others, and in endeavoring to make it appear 



14 

that the obvious aggressor was fighting a defensive war. 
But one fact after another has come to the surface, and, 
stripped of all falsity, the truth is that the Prussian Junker 
class, led by the House of Hohenzollern, began a brutal and 
barbarous attack on a peaceful and industrious neighbor, 
which Prussia, with others, had sworn in a solemn treaty to 
protect. 

There is no longer any value in discussing the petty 
things put forward by Emperor William and the military 
party as reasons for the war, such as the murders at Sar- 
ajevo, the mobilization of the Russian army, the belief that 
France intended to invade Belgium, or already had invaded 
Germany, and Germany in self-defense was compelled to 
move first, etc. The rock bottom of truth is that the Hoh- 
enzollerns from their first acquiring Brandenburg, by pur- 
chase, in the fifteenth century, have steadily enlarged their 
boundaries and authority, always by force. Their own state- 
ments of policy and the publications of those who speak for 
Prussian policy have always been to the effect that Prussia 
must and should be enlarged and become more powerful 
and extend the benefits of her own greatness to others. 

Not to go back of 1866, when she forced Austria out 
of Germany, and 1870, when she brought the other German 
states under her into an empire, it is obvious that the great 
purpose was not so much to have a united and progressive 
Germany as to enlarge the territory and population to be 
swayed by Prussia. Then the Prussian leaders spoke of 
greater ambitions, in the name of Germany, and thus they 
have the added weight of imperial organization to further 
the schemes for imposing Prussian kultur on the remainder 
of the world. 

For forty years every nerve has been strained to en- 
large and strengthen the army, build a great navy, and incul- 
cate the idea of zvorld pozver in all the youth of German 
birth, until the great day when some incident should be 
seized upon to justify the first active steps in this world 
dominion. 

All this was so skilfully done that when the time came, 
Austria, former rival and enemy, serves as a tool to aid 
this overpowering ambition of Prussia. Indeed, she can 



15 

scarcely help herself. She cannot afford to oppose the pan- 
German plan or kultur's world propaganda. 

Every preparation that could well be imagined had been 
irade to make a successful campaign, first against France, 
then England, then the United States, and the world. Be- 
lieving as do those who support the Hohenzollerns' idea that 
force is all that counts, Germ.any had prepared all that was 
necessary for this world domination. At the beginning of 
the war, Germany was infinitely better prepared than any of 
her enemies, or than all of those who have since joined to 
resist autocracy's kultur gone mad. 

Germany had the Kiel canal, prime essential in controll- 
ing the Baltic and North seas, more and better submarines 
than anyone else, a fleet of Zeppelins, which no other nation 
had, a larger, better equipped standing army than any other 
nation. Her navy, second only to that of Great Britain, 
would soon be first, for submarines would soon dispose of 
the British fleet. In fact, Germany had everything neces- 
sary, on the basis that force alone counts, to begin, and suc- 
cessfully end the conquest of the world; but, thank God, 
there is something in the world besides force, and it is some- 
thing that force alone cannot overcome. Germany took no 
account of the possible resistance of a spirit of liberty and 
justice. This cannot be measured in terms of submarines. 
Zeppelins, caliber of howitzers, and "schrecklichkeit." 

Germany did not merely attack little Belgium and half- 
prepared France, but stirred England to defend the sacred- 
ness of treaties, and nearly all the rest of the world to resist 
the arrogant assumption that force and kultur are superior 
to and can overcom.e justice, humanity, and the spirit of 
democracy. 

As the war has gone on from wrecks to months and 
years, the issue has become clearer, until now it stands out 
so plain that phrase-makers and pacifist cranks can no longer 
befog the controversy. It is democracy against autoc- 
racy, the highest ideals worked out by man during all the 
centuries of growing civilization against primitive barbarian 
force. 

But this force is not wielded with the clumsiness of the 
prehistoric man with his club. Human genius through the 



16 

whole period of recorded time has been drawn upon to make 
the drive for world-power a success. The inventive abilities 
of all nations have been drawn upon, the scientific and me- 
chanical devices for the industries of peace and war have 
all been utilized. An amazing ability for organization has 
enabled the German government not only to arrange every 
detail of mobilization and transportation for the beginning 
of the war, but to fill peaceful and friendly nations with spies 
who should, at command, endeavor to sow dissension, breed 
revolution, and disintegrate the governments before any sus- 
picion of hostility had arisen. 

Is there any holier task for the United States, which 
stands before all the world as the example of successful 
dem.ocratic government and of the greatest possibilities in 
development of a free people, than to combat, with all its 
energy, and fight to a conclusion, the attempt to turn the 
world backward and use the achievements of all times and 
even of democracy itself to firmly establish autocracy in all 
the earth? 

Perhaps we should blame ourselves for not being 
alarmed at the German program long before the war be- 
gan. Books had been published to show the supreme excel- 
lence of kultur and the necessity of imposing it upon all the 
world. Hear an extract or two, from General Bernhardi's 
"Germany and the Next War" (several editions — last in 
1914) : 

"The duties and obligations of the German people can- 
not be fulfilled without drawing the sword. The moral duty 
of the state is to begin the struggle while prospects of suc- 
cess and the political circumstances are still tolerably favor- 
able, when hostile states are weakened or hampered by af- 
fairs at home or abroad. 

"Efiforts toward the abolition of war must not only be 
termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be stig- 
matized as unworthy of the human race. The weak nation 
to have the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous 
nation? The whole idea represents a presumptuous en- 
croachment on the natural laws of development. The law of 
the strong holds good everywhere. Might is the supreme 
right and the dispute as to what is right is decided bv the 



17 

arbitrament of war. War gives a biologically just decision. 
"War is not only a necessary element in the life of na- 
tions, but an indispensable factor in kultur. Our own coun- 
try, by employing its military powers, has attained a degree 
of kultur which it never could have reached by peaceful de- 
velopment. Christian morality is based indeed on the law 
of love. "Love God above all things and thy neighbor as 
thyself." This law can have no significance for the relations 
of one country to another." 

From "Operations on the Sea," by Freiherr von Edel- 
sheim, formerly on the German general staff: 

"As a matter of fact, Germany is the only great power 
which is in a position to conquer the United States. The 
land corps can either advance aggressively against the con- 
centrated opposing forces or through embarking evade an at- 
tack and land at a new place," etc. Many details of method. 
From the beginning of his reign, in 1888, Kaiser Wil- 
helm II has repeatedly in public addresses expressed ambi- 
tion for world leadership. Here is an extract from one of 
his earlier addresses : 

"Remember that you are the chosen people. The spirit 
of the Lord has descended upon me because I am the Ger- 
man Emperor. * "^^ * Woe and death to those who op- 
pose my will. Woe and death to those who do not believe 
in my mission." 

In reading these we have thought they were merely 
bombastic expressions of vain and egotistic men, somewhat 
like what we have called in our country the "spread-eagle 
oratory" of the Fourth of July speaker. But now we know 
that every boast and plan was uttered in all seriousness and 
that the big words were not vAndy oratory, but expressions 
of honest belief in the superiority of everything German, 
and of a firm determination to force the world to its recog- 
nition. I have many times in my classes or public lectures 
called attention to these speeches of the Emperor with the 
idea that they were to be taken seriously only by Germans 
who chose to worship Divine Right of Kings. But I see 
now how gravely I was mistaken. He meant every word 
and he led his people to prepare for world dominion. 

So thoroughly has this idea been burned into the mili- 



18 

tary and other ruling classes that they have become utterly 
indifferent to the opinion of the rest of the world. One of 
them, Zimmerman, recent foreign minister, said in a pomp- 
ous tone at a large public assembly to American Ambassador 
Gerard, ''We care nothing for treaties." Another, Major 
General von Disfurth, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung, 
"No object whatever can be served by taking any notice of 
the accusations of barbarity leveled against Germany by her 
foreign critics. We owe no explanation to any one. What- 
ever act is committed by our troops for the purpose of dis- 
couraging, defeating and destroying the enemy is a brave 
act and fully justified. Germany stands the supreme arbiter 
of her own methods. War is war. 

"They call us barbarians. What of it? We scorn them 
and their abuse. For my part I hope in this war we have 
merited the title "barbarians." Let neutral peoples and our 
enemies cease their empty chatter, which may well be com- 
pared to the twitter of birds. Our troops must achieve vic- 
tory. What else matters?" 

It is difficult for any of us to comprehend this cast of 
mind. The tendency of civilization from the earliest times 
has been toward the thought that there are higher sentiments 
than those inspired by mere power. Certainly since the 
foundation of Christianity we look to Christian nations to 
"play fair" even in a conflict. Every effort seems to have 
been made to inculcate into the universal German mind this 
thought, so clearly expressed by General von Disfurth, 
"achieve victory, what else matters?" 

Here we have a curious combination of primitive sav- 
age and mediaeval despot making fullest use of all the most 
highly developed sciences of the twentieth century to accom- 
plish objects worthy only of uncivilized tribes ; and the worst 
of it all is that to resist this kind of thing those who wish to 
"play fair" are at the greatest disadvantage and are there- 
fore compelled to use the_engines of destruction and other 
means employed by those who "care nothing for treaties," 
and who "glory in being barbarians." 

So now we are waging a war against war. A war to 
subdue the last powerful group of nations v/hich does not 
have either parliamentary and truly representative govern- 



19 

nient, or republican institutions. All of North and South 
America, even Asia and Africa, and all Europe save Ger- 
many, Austria-Hungary and Turkey recognize and use pop- 
ular or parliamentary government. We do not wish to sub- 
due them in order to impose on them any particular form 
or organiation of governm.ent, but to teach them by the only 
means they seem to understand or comprehend that they 
may not now or ever in the future impose upon the major- 
ity of the world an autocratic system w^hich has fully served 
its purpose, if it ever had one, and should have been laid 
away half a century or more ago, when the doctrine of the 
sovereignty of the people had becom.e widely established. 

It is a question of life or death for democracy, inde- 
pendence, and popular government. Ask yourself what 
would happen if Germany wins this war and see if you can 
feel any joy or comfort in the prospect. 

It is not now necessary to relate in any detail the al- 
most unbelievable atrocities that have been perpetrated. 
They have been amply proven and retold in newspapers and 
magazines. Think of the possibility of being imder the rule 
of a government that directs or encourages the dropping of 
bombs on hospitals and torpedoing hospital ships, not to 
mention a thousand other deeds that display an ingenuity 
no less than satanic ! Ambassador Gerard has verified the 
fact that the Crown Prince boasted to an American more 
than three years ago that if a general war did not come 
before his father's death he himself, as soon as he should 
come to the throne, would ''make war and conquer the 
world." 

Defeat of the Allies means submission of all of them to 
whatever Prussianism may choose to impose. x\lready it has 
been announced that colossal indemnities are planned to be 
collected from the cities of our Atlantic seaboard. What 
more might follow in every line of possible oppression we 
need not try to conceive. German victoi-y must not come! 
It would undo the progress of the centuries. We cannot 
believe such a thing to be possible. Tyrants and oppressors 
have been overthrown all along the ages. History is strewn 
with the wrecks of despotisms, and popular sovereignty has 
come out of the conflicts for nearlv all the nations of the 



20 

globe. Surely now when the supreme test has come, the 
flower of human development, Democracy, must not and 
can not be withered by an outworn despotism that has lin- 
gered on into the twentieth century. 

Some of the poison-tongued traitors who have tried to 
block our government in its preparations have hissed out 
the old stock phrase of the middle ages, "This is a rich man's 
war and a poor man's fight." A trifle of investigation and 
reflection will show the utter falsity of this statement. The 
sons of the best known wealthy men of the whole country 
have enlisted and are already serving in foreign fields. Some 
of those who have already died for the cause have been the 
sons of American millionaires. Exemptions from compul- 
sory service are given in greater proportion to the poor than 
to the rich. The poor m_an has more to gain under a free 
government, and would be helpless under kaiserism. No, 
this is everybody's war, that is, everybody who prefers lib- 
erty to despotism. 

The aims of the central powers (so called, in reality, 
Prussia) have been no secret for several years. First is the 
establishment of a continuous line of railroad from the 
Baltic sea southeasterly through the Balkans, Turkey and 
Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf. This has been essentially 
accomplished and is now under German control with the ex- 
ception of slight interference by the British in Arabia. This 
splits the Eastern Hemisphere. Following this success, 
Prussian technical efficiency has begotten such a vast self- 
esteem, a megalomania, that it has no doubt of the appoint- 
ment by God to confer kultur on the whole world. 

Contrast with these aims those of the Allies, viz., en- 
forcement of treaties, independence of peoples, safety against 
faithlessness, right of people to determine their own form 
of government. Can there be higher aims than these ? 

Much as we may regret the terrible circumstances that 
have pressed us into this war, Prussia will be the means of 
driving efficiency into every school, every business and every 
home in every nation. It is no credit to Prussia or her 
rulers that this is so, for they stand indicted before the bar 
of justice of all humanity. 

I here charge William II of the house of Hohenzollern 



21 

with ( 1 ) endeavoring by force of arms and f rightfulness to 
replace the civilization of the ages v^ith Prussian kultur; (2) 
with the responsibility of burdening the coming generations 
with untold billions of debt; (3) with responsibility for 
mourning and despair in the homes of twenty-six nations 
of the earth; (4) with spreading over the war area the 
methods of barbarism and savagery belonging in past cen- 
turies to Indians, Huns and Tartars, and surpassing them 
as professionals surpass tyros in ingenious deviltry; (6) with 
accomplishing devastation and death greater than from the 
combined enterprises of Xerxes, Alexander, Caesar, Nero, 
Charlemagne and Napoleon, Will he succeed? He has 
failed already. He has overreached himself. He has earned 
the scorn and contempt of nine-tenths of humanity, and the 
undercurrents of disapproval and mutterings of discontent 
are beginning to be heard in his own country. 

Civilization has not broken down. Democracy, the 
ripest fruit of civilization, has only fairly begun its leaven- 
ing work, and, together with Universal Peace, will encircle 
the globe. 



"Six Things, Yea Seven" 

A Talk with Strikers and Labor Unions 

By J. H. Paul, Professor of Natural Science. 

In the Sixth of Proverbs we read: ''These six things 
doth the Lord hate, yea seven are an abomination unto him : 
A proud lo,ok, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent 
blood ; a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations ; feet that 
be swift in running into mischief, a false witness that speak- 
eth lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren." 

I. THE PROUD LOOK. 

What other people have ever affected a mein so haughty 
as the ''proud look" of German rulers, nobles, titled officials, 
and medal-bedecked soldiery? Even the Prussian military 
martinets have at length assumed the arrogance of their 
masters, and today they practice an insolence that has become 



22 

intolerable among free men. These upstarts (see Gerard's 
account of their ways of promotion) now attempt to tram- 
ple down and exploit the people of other lands. German 
officers often kick the privates forward to the targets if too 
many poor shots are made by raw recruits, or they throw 
the soldiers from the boat into the middle of the river if they 
fail, after a few trials, to swim well. If workingmen con- 
tinue to strike or if congress delays, until the Germans win, 
will Prussian officers in vanquished America kick the private 
soldier? Not, I fancy, while any true American still draws 
the breath of life. Fellow-workers, shall we aid Germany 
further by strikes, lockouts, and the stoppage of production? 
Or shall we all stand by America ? 

11. THE LYING TONGUE. 

Where else has falsehood been so scientifically estab- 
lished, the lying tongues so well trained, as in official Ger- 
man diplomacy ? Has any truth emanated from the German 
government during the last three years when deception 
would serve better the German military aims ? We see their 
national honor violated, their solemn covenants broken, their 
obligations to mankind flouted, their treaties with nations 
torn up as scraps of paper, whenever such perfidy appears to 
ofi^er advantage to their unrighteous cause ! But it may not 
be so generally known that many of the paroled officers on 
German ,ships interned in this country, in return for the 
courteous treatment and free movement accorded to them 
by chivalrous American guards, disregarded their sworn 
pledges, basely sneaked away, and absconded long before our 
patient government had ceased trying to maintain peace with 
their war-mad masters in Germany. 

III. HANDS THAT SHED BLOOD. 

What hands, in the earth's whole history, can compare, 
in the shedding of innocent blood, with what Prussian des- 
potism must answer for in this horrible massacre of little 
nations? The German nobles call this the divinest war of 
their careers. The waifs in dying Armenia, their fathers 
massacred and their mothers dragged off into Turkish 
slavery, feebly stretch out their puny hands to America for a 



23 

crust of bread. All the children of Poland, under 6 years of 
age, according to the report of the American representative 
there, have died of starvation under the selfish and brutal 
robbery of food products carried out by the invading German 
armies. No other armies have ever been thus convicted of 
taking food out of the mouths of starving babies. Similar 
revelations of horror are now coming from Serbia and Mon- 
tenegro ; and only the generosity of other nations than Ger- 
many saves Belgium from wholesale famine. 

IV. RUNNING INTO MISCHIEF. 

What feet have been so swift as those of modern Ger- 
many in "running into mischief? For three decades the 
nations of Europe have been menaced by the growing rest- 
lessness of Germany in the direction of war. Times without 
number have the military braggarts of Prussia engaged in 
war threats against unoffending neighbor nations. "Rat- 
tling the saber" has been the chief pastime of the crown 
prince and his supporters in their public addresses. Not 
even America, which was far away, which had never crossed 
Germany's path, and. which entertained for that country and 
its people only the sentiments of friendship and good will, 
was able to escape threats of war from the haughty imperial 
government. Before the present war was forced upon us, 
on three diiferent occasions within my memory, Germany 
sought war with this country, not for anything our nation 
had said or done, but simply because we were lawfully in 
posession or guardianship of territory that the German mili- 
tary command coveted for their value as bases for future 
military operations. Thus at Samoa, some twenty-five years 
ago, Germany actually undertook to oust us and to take pos- 
session, and finally desisted only because of the active co- 
operation of the British v/ar fleet in support of ours. In the 
Philippines, during the war with Spain, the kaiser sent a 
great war fleet to wrest these i.slands from our approaching 
control — the famous expedition under Deidrich that sought 
to prevent Dewey from attacking the Spanish fleet. Again 
the British warships lined up with our own, and the Germans 
recoiled. Next came the German attempt to seize part of 
Venezuela, which was repelled by the warlike action of Mr. 



24 

Roosevelt akled by the old-time German fear of the British 
navy. 

V. "wicked imaginations." 

The Prussian military machine has enslaved the masses 
of Germany and bent the energies of a whole great nation 
to its sinister purposes. That it had fully resolved to put a 
similar yoke upon the peoples of other nations, is abundantly 
proved from the utterances and teachings of the official 
classes, and is again disclosed in the facts now being made 
public by Ambassador Gerard and the American government. 
These disclosures indicate that the Prussian military rulers 
are not merely the natural enemies, but the open and avowed 
foes, of real democracy in any form. It is plain that they 
have been at all times ready and willing to wage war upon 
free peotples. Now that these autocrats have raised this issue 
on so large a scale, the world cannot remain half under mili- 
tary despotism and half free. It will be one or the other. 
America must either fight or surrender to a tyranny that has 
made cannon fodder of the German masses, industrial 
drudges of the women, serfs of the children, automatons of 
the officials, slaves or starvelings of the civilian and non- 
combatant populations of the countries that it has overrun. 
German skilled mechanics before the war received but $2 per 
day for ten hours of intense application ; harvest laborers, 
mainly women, but 20 cents per day for a toil unheard of 
among wom,en ; street cleaners, 25 cents per day ; common 
soldiers, dying in the trenches, 5 cents per day ; each prisoner 
in Germany must exist on what 60 pfennigs (15 cents) will 
purchase at famine prices; and so on. And this is the piti- 
ful fate, fellow-workers, that awaits all wage earners in 
countries subdued by Germany. Miners of the I. W. W., 
who struck at Bisbee, Arizona, for an advance from $5 per 
day of eight hours to $6 per day of six hours, will 
please take notice. Sheep-shearers of Wyoming who struck 
last summer and had their wages advanced from $20 
per day to $40 per day will do well to observe that 
when, by such antics, our country is so hampered and 
weakened that it cannot withstand the onslaught of 
the helpless German masses, a day's wage of sheep-shearers 



25 

under the German rule, which they are powerfully helping 
to bring upon us, will not be more, and may be less, than $2. 
The slow tortures which Germany allots to prisoners, 
and the shame with which it breaks the spirit and binds in 
white slavery the flower of the female populations in the 
countries which its armies invade — these very conditions will 
be your lot and the fate of your women as soon as you 
strikers hand this country over to Germany. You are 
autocracy's best allies. Every American striker is worth ten 
soldiers to Germany. 

VI. THE FALSE WITNESS. 

"A false witness that speaketh lies" has appeared in al- 
most every labor union, saying that it matters little if Ger- 
many wins. Be it known, therefore, to all labor unions that 
the staggering indemnities which a victorious Germany will 
exact signify the practical confiscation of the accumulated 
capital of America. Not only so, but every home, farm, fac- 
tory, mine, railroad, etc., will be mortgaged to the imperial 
war lords who conduct the German government, and every 
workingman will toil, with all his family, for generations to 
come to pay off the indemnity debts that will be heaped upon 
his shoulders. The Montclair clergyman who heads the 
Antisaloon league justifies his delay and obstruction of the 
necessary food-control law by saying: 'Tf you are fighting 
Germany and the kaiser, don't bother about us. We are fight- 
ing hell and the devil, and have no time to bother about 
your puny, little war." But he forgot that if Germany tri- 
umphs, then his ''hell and the devil" have won and his "puny 
little war" for prohibition will lose also among the beer-lov- 
ing German princes and nobles. Then every law for which 
unions and workers are contending will go into the scrap 
heap along with all the other "scraps of paper" upon which 
the rights, liberties and privileges of the entire American 
people are recorded. The one paramount issue for all Amer- 
icans today is victory over Germany. Whoever it is that 
says there is any other present issue till this one is disposed 
of — whether he be capitalist, Socialist, prohibitionist or 
unionist — "is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (I John 
1:9). 



26 



VII SOWING DISCORD. 



The last of the seven things that the Lord is declared 
to hate is *'he that soweth discord among brethren" — a true 
picture of the German governmental schemes for the down- 
fall of other nations by creating discord among them. The 
German spies that have filled our own unsuspecting country 
for decades and are still at work among us, their intrigues 
to stir up civil war or to promote industrial strife in this and 
other countries, their military maps and plans, for the in- 
vasion and ruin of all free governments, their butchery, 
starvation or enforced slavery and degradation of innocent 
civilians amiong the little nations — Armenia, Belgium, Serbia 
and Russian Poland — as well as the shocking mistreatment 
of the non-combatant populations in the conquered provinces 
of France, Russia and Rumania — how strikingly does all this 
horrible reality correspond with the scriptural words that 
point to the work of German despotism ! That government 
seeks simply to obliterate human freedom by crushing the 
democratic nations that uphold it, while aiding and abetting 
the crimes of despotisms — Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey — 
whose people do not even know the taste of liberty. 

THE CHOICE — LIBERTY VS. SLAVERY. 

But why, some workingmen have asked, should Germany 
hate America ? — what has America ever done to her ? Noth- 
ing, except that the very success of a mighty republic gov- 
erned by the votes of a free people has been a constant ob- 
ject lesson to the German masses — a perpetual reminder of 
their own poverty and lack of free thought and action. It 
is chiefly what they have heard of America that has created 
unrest among the overburdened working people of Germany. 
It is American thought and ways that are forever stirring 
them on to obtain similar freedom and prosperity for them- 
selves. The American example has thus become the chief 
source of irritation to the autocratic classes of Germany, 
and they have therefore decreed its destruction just as soon 
as they can put England and France out of the way in Eu- 
rope. Such a republic, if German autocracy triumphs, will 



27 

not be permitted to stand. Workingmen must either serve 
America today or be degraded and enslaved by Germany 
tomorrow. Strikers or greedy capitalists, if they succeed 
in crippling America now, will alike be the serfs of Ger- 
many hereafter. The sole question is, Shall the American 
people continue to shape the policies of America? Or shall 
the kaiser rule America as he and his house now rule Ger- 
many? This is the only issue now before this nation. 

If any union, any association of men, pretends that the 
present triumph of a faction is more important than the 
winning of this last great war against social despotism and 
military tyranny, then the true answer to such men is found 
in the words of the master law-giver of olden times : '*! 
call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I 
have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, 
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" 
(Deut. 30:19). 



America— The Land of Promise, 

By Levi Edgar Young, Professor of American History. 

With the inauguration of George Washington as Pres- 
ident of the United States, in 1789, the nations of Europe 
realized the advent of a new government, where "all men 
are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights." The ideals of the new govern- 
ment were expressed in the Constitution, the first and only 
document of its kind in history. It promised the people free- 
dom in religion and political life, and has always had for its 
fundamental thought that all men are equal, and are en- 
dowed with divine Light from God. The peoples of west- 
ern Europe, still subject to the economic ideals and practices 
of the past, looked to the New World as the Land of Prom- 
ise. Immigration began. On to the vast domain of the 
American Continent went the Swede, German, English- 
man, Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, and other nationalities. 
Penetrating the wilderness, they felled the forests, cleared 
the lands, dug canals and ditches, built roads and bridges, 



28 

and planted in the wilderness the home, the fundamental so- 
cial institution of civilization. The home became the unit 
of government, and never before in history has the home 
life been developed as it has been on this continent and under 
this Government. Land ownership became the rule and not 
the exception. Men took up land and reaped the rewards 
of their own toil. Having the virgin soil of a full continent, 
America's history is written in economic independence and 
prosperity. Out of this prosperity grew our free political 
institutions, and this land became a land of freedom and 
equality. The people became resourceful and independent, 
and developed high moral conceptions of life, resulting in 
''mass morals," not ''class morals." "Man is a creative force, 
a child of God," says the American pioneer, "and here, there 
shall be no slave nor king, no bond and free, but all shall 
have power to realize their higher selves." This becomes 
the foundation of the new American religion. Free to wor- 
ship God according to the dictates of conscience, the Amer- 
ican people have developed a new conception of the meaning 
of religion, based on the eternal fact that man is a god in 
embryo, and that through him, the Eternal speaks and makes 
known His divine laws. A man should no more become a 
law unto himself religiously, than a law unto himself polit- 
ically. 

The American became the inventor, and free to act, he 
learned to control the elements, and to master the laws of 
Nature. While he has been criticised as unreflective and 
un-philosophical, yet he has developed an idealism, and no 
place in the world has Labor, the greatest behest of man, 
been so idealized as by the American artist. The American 
has conquered peaceably a virgin continent. At the very 
root of our civilization has been the institution of agricul- 
ture, giving us our wealth and varied economic life. The 
conquerors have been rich in courage and intelligence, and 
the results are seen today in our democratic government, as 
well as our intellectual and social, religious, and political 
institutions. America is a new nation ; it is in the making, 
and the two great forces in its perfecting are God and man. 
God is working through men, and there is fast growing a 
newer and higher conception of man's destiny and the des- 



29 

tiny of the nations of all the world. In the great conflict 
now going on in Europe, the nations have turned to us, and 
we have responded to the call of millions of people who see 
their destruction by the military autocracy of Germany. It 
is the noblest act of history, and is destined to "make the 
world safe for democracy." The United States will be the 
savior of the world. Its ideals will become the ideals of 
all peoples, its truths and conceptions of justice, the truths 
and justice of all nations. But we are in the making; our 
ideals are being formed and realized from day to day. In 
his interesting drama, the "Melting Pot," Israel Zangwill 
describes the idealism of the American as it is today, and 
will be. The conversation is between Vera, a Christian girl, 
and David, a Jewish violinist and composer, whose help 
Vera is asking: 

''Vera — So your music finds inspiration in America? 

"David — Yes — in the seething of the Crucible, the great 
Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and 
re-forming! Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I 
see them at Ellis Island, here you stand {Graphically illus- 
trating it on the table.) in your fifty groups, with your fifty 
languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and 
rivalries. But you won't be long like that, brothers, for 
these are the fires of God you've come to — these are the 
fires of God. A fig for your feuds and vendettas ! Germans 
and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Rus- 
sians — into the Crucible with you all. God is making the 
American. He will be the fusion of all races, the com- 
ing superman. Ah, what a glorious Finale for my symphony 
— if I can only write it." 

This is the Land of Promise, seen in vision by Isaiah 
of old, when he analyzed the nature of the true nation of 
the future. Justice shall rule the hearts of the people, the 
spirit of mercy shall be the ideal of the children, and rev- 
erence, which is the recognition of the voice of God, shall 
be the guiding principle of all men. "We have a strong city : 
salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open 
ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the 
tnth shall enter in." 



30 

Civilization and World Peace ^ 

By Milton Bennion, Dean of the School of Education. 

What is the place of war in civihzation? This raises 
the whole problem of the function of evil in the world. 

Evils may be classified as physical, such as earthquakes, 
pestilence and drought; and moral, such as injustice, dis- 
honesty, and debauchery. Why these things are and what 
their purpose in the world is are questions that have puzzled 
mankind from the beginnings of philosophical thinking until 
now. One of the most classical literary expressions of the 
problem is the Book of Job, where the predominating motive 
is religious. Many exponents of the religious view of the 
world have attempted to reconcile the fact of evil in the 
world with the assumption of the omnipotence and perfection 
of God, while skeptics have used these same facts as evidence 
against religion and in support of agnosticism or atheism. 

It is not our purpose to pursue this question from the 
religious standpoint. A purely humanitarian view of the 
matter raises this question. What is the end of man and how 
is evil related to the attainment of this end? 

In the first place, physical perfection cannot be the ulti- 
mate goal, much less can ease or freedom from all harm and 
danger. Man and the world are so constituted that these 
ends are impossible. Moreover, man develops through 
struggle to overcome obstacles and to ward off evils. Men 
whose lives have been uneventful and commonplace have 
been transformed into heroic figures by the sudden social dis- 
turbance caused by a violent earthquake. The fight against 
disease has likewise often brought similar results. It is not, 
of course, the disease that does this, but the fight against dis- 
ease. Paradoxical as it may seem, these physical evils that 
seem to justify themselves because they stimulate human 
development are not to be sought. Character is not devel- 
oped by a person's becoming a voluntary martyr to disease 
germs or by suffering the violence of an earthquake just for 
the experience. On the contrary, mankind has developed 



31 

through his efforts to combat diseases and, in so far as pos- 
sible, to nullify the evil effects of nature's calamities. 

The case of moral evil is not so simple, although from 
the standpoint of those that are striving to overcome it, its 
function is similar to that of physical evil. The effort of 
one people to oppress another offers opportunity for resist- 
ance that may bring out the most heroic characters. Such 
public heroes have generally been brought to light in just 
this way. What would Washington have been without the 
War of the Revolution and the struggles and uncertainties 
of our early national life? And what of Lincoln without 
slavery and the Civil War ? Has any champion of right ever 
arisen except in opposition to the prevalence of wrong some- 
where? These wrongs are moral evils for which individ- 
uals or societies are sponsors. 

If we may agree that moral development is the end of 
man and society, those that fight against wrong are indeed 
fortunate ; but what can be said for those against whom 
they fight? We can only hope that those who champion 
wrong do so in ignorance, that they fight a losing cause, and 
that they or their successors may some day become enlight- 
ened. This applies to war as it does to every variety of 
moral struggle. There can be no justification for any war 
that is not a moral struggle; and, of course, no justification 
for those that fight on the wrong side when a moral issue 
is being thus settled. 

While world peace is the goal toward which civilization 
is moving, so long as any nation resorts to arms as a means 
of aggression or in support of any form of wrong, military 
resistance, as a last resort, will ahvays be a virtue. More- 
over, those that fight in a righteous cause must fight doubly 
hard. Upon their success depends the cause of humanity and 
progress. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




Contents ^ 

020 914 144 9i 

1. Introduction President John A. Wiatsoe l. 

2. Why Are We at War? Milton Bennion 3 

(From the Carnegie Peace Lectures for 1917) 

3. The Pillars of Liberty J. H. Paul 6 

(From an address at Tooele, Utah, July 24, 1917) 

4. ,What Is at Stake? George Emory Fellows 13 

(From an address at the University and at Fort D.ouglas) 

5. "Six Things, Yea Seven" J. H. Paul 21 

(From an address at the University) 

6. America, the Land of Opportunity ... Levi Edgar Young 27 

(From an address at the University) 

7. Civilization and the World Peace Milton Bennion 30 

(From the Carnegie Peace Lectures for 1917) 

Index to Chief Topics 

Aims of America, 2, 6, 13, 19, 20, 27. 

Aims of Germany, 4, 12, 14, 16, 23. 

Arrests, Amercan and German, 8. 

Belgium, violation of, 4, 5, 15. 

Character, how developed, 22, 30, 31. 

Causes of the War, 4, 6, 13-15, 23, 24. 

Charters, American and German, 6, 7. 

Civil versus military supremacy, 11. 

Court procedure in America and Germany, 8. 

Democracy, 4, 12, 1,5, 28. 

Destiny of America, 2, 26 29. 

Duty of Americans, 1, 2, 3, 12, 25, 27, 28. 

Evil, problem of 30, 31. 

Equality before the law, 10, 27. 

Free speech 3, 9, 10. 

Germany, the enemy of mankind, 2, 5, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22-26. 

Habeas corpus in America, England and Germany, 7. 

Home, the American in political life, 28. 

Ideals, American, 27, 28, 30; German, 16-19, 22-26. 

Issues, the chief vv^ar, 2, 4, 6, 12, 13, 26. 

Kings, divine right of, 10, 17; crimes of, 21, 22-24. 

Melting pot, America as, 29. 

Might vs. right, 6, 11-13, 16, 17. 

Peace, the American aim and ideal, 2, 5, 11, 29, 31. 

Religious liberty — America and Germany compared, 11. 

Representative vs. autocratic government, 12, "20 27, 

Supreme Court, for nations and world, 11, 12. 

Traitors, treason, treachery, 4, 9, 20, 25. 

Treaties, American vs. German views of, 6, 18, 22. 

Voting in America and in Germany, 11. 

Wages in Germany, 24. 

War, its causes, justification and effects, 4-6, 13-18, 23, 30, 31. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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020 914 144 9 



